restraint. They had either begged or stolen traders' rum, and after the hard trip from Ste. Anne, were eager for one of their mad boissons—a drinking-bout interspersed with jigs and fights.

Stretched before our camp, I watched the grotesque figures leaping and dancing between the[Pg 80] firelight and the dusky woods like forest demons. With the leaves rustling overhead, the water laving the pebbles on the shore, and the washed pine air stimulating one's blood like an intoxicant, I began wondering how many years of solitary life it would take to wear through civilization's veneer and leave one content in the lodges of forest wilds. Gradually I became aware of my sulky canoeman's presence on the other side of the camp-fire. The man had not joined the revels of the other voyageurs but sat on his feet, oriental style, gazing as intently at the flames as if spellbound by some fire-spirit.

[Pg 80]

"What's wrong with that fellow, anyhow?" I asked a veteran trader, who was taking last pulls at a smoked-out pipe.

"Sick—home-sick," was the laconic reply.

"You'd think he was near enough nature here to feel at home! Where's his tribe?"

"It ain't his tribe he wants," explained the trader.

"What, then?" I inquired.

"His wife, he's mad after her," and the trader took the pipe from his teeth.

"Faugh!" I laughed. "The idea of an Indian sentimental and love-sick for some fat lump of a squaw! Come! Come! Am I to believe that?"

"Don't matter whether you do, or not," returned the trader. "It's a fact. His wife's a Sioux chief's daughter. She went north with a gang of half-breeds and hunters last month; and he's been fractious crazy ever since."[Pg 81]

[Pg 81]

"What's his name?" I called, as my informant vanished behind the tent flaps.

Again that mouthful of Indian syllables, unintelligible and unspeakable for me was tumbled forth. Then I turned to the fantastic figures carousing around the other camp fire. One form, in particular, I seemed to distinguish from the others. He was gathering the Indians in line for some native dance and had an easy, rakish sort of grace, quite different from the serpentine motions of the redskins. By a sudden turn, his profile was thrown against the fire 

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